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ALEXANDRIA, VA—Edwin Barcus Jr., aka “Boo,” 27, of Georgia, pleaded guilty to running a commercial sex business that prostituted at least seven juvenile girls in Herndon, Virginia, and other locations throughout Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, II; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Lt. Colonel James A. Morris, Acting Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.

Barcus pleaded guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison when he is sentenced on June 7, 2013.

[...]

Barcus admitted that he used Backpage.com and other erotic Internet sites to advertise the girls’ services and to recruit girls to work for his organization. When the girls found it difficult to repeatedly have sex with strange men, Barcus and others provided them with alcohol and narcotics to make them more vulnerable and susceptible to prostitution.

Barcus and other conspirators carried and, when necessary, brandished firearms while engaging in prostitution-related activities, and Barcus battered at least three of the females working for his commercial sex enterprise. At times, Barcus had the women and girls he prostituted tattooed with his nickname “Boo.”

In November 2012, Barcus was prostituting at least one juvenile in Herndon, Virginia, while another member of his organization was prostituting other females in Atlanta, Georgia. Because the venture was yielding substantial profits in Herndon, Barcus instructed the conspirator to bring two 17-year-old girls to Herndon. When one of the girls objected, she was told that “under the rules of the game” she had to go to Virginia. Barcus admitted that each girl servicing clients in Herndon could obtain $500 or more per day. All the money was turned over to Barcus or other members of the enterprise.